In the aftermath of the election of Donald Trump and a Republican Congress, Minnesota representative Keith Ellison has emerged as a leading contender to chair the Democratic National Committee. Ellison resides on the far-left fringe of the Democratic party. But perhaps it is a fringe no more. Ellison has received the support not only of Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren but also of prospective Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer.

I have followed Ellison's career since he secured the endorsement of the Fifth congressional district Democratic-Farmer-Labor convention in 2006, against the handpicked successor of long-time incumbent Martin Sabo when Sabo was to step down. Ellison presented himself to the convention as the leftward-most viable candidate to succeed Sabo and dared the delegates to vote their true views. It was a winning argument at the convention, though it resulted in a competitive four-way primary for the Democratic nomination that September. Ellison prevailed in the primary with 42 percent of the vote. It's the last truly competitive election in which Ellison has run.

I'm doubtful that Ellison is the man to lead the Democrats out of the political wilderness in which they find themselves at the moment. His district is heavily Democratic. Republicans are able to recruit candidates to oppose Ellison, but the exercise is a formality. In the 2016 election, Ellison was off 12,000 votes from the support he received in 2012. This time around the candidate of Legal Marijuana Now drew 30,000 votes and otherwise appears to have subtracted from support Ellison might have received. It's that kind of congressional district.

Ellison embodies the identity politics on which the Democrats have staked so much of their success. As a black Muslim in a one-party town with a left-wing newspaper (Minneapolis's Star Tribune), it has served him well. Ellison has been insulated from the kind of media scrutiny that his checkered past would have received elsewhere.

Although there are practical political grounds for doubting that Ellison is the man to lead the Democrats back to power, that is an issue for Democrats. The case against Ellison that should concern all Americans is moral. To borrow a term, he is a bad hombre.

When I speak about Ellison in the Twin Cities, I give a talk titled "The Secret History of Keith Ellison." The title is facetious. Ellison's history only became "secret" when he ran for Congress in 2006 and bet his campaign on three lies about his involvement with the Nation of Islam. I recounted and recalled Ellison's "secret history" in the WEEKLY STANDARD articles "Louis Farrakhan's First Congressman" and "The Ellison Elision."

Yet Ellison's history as an active member and local leader of the Nation of Islam remains a deep secret to Ellison's constituents in his district. He blatantly lied about it when he was running in the 2006 DFL primary. He suppressed it in his 2014 memoir, My Country, 'Tis of Thee. Indeed, in his memoir he presented himself as a critic of Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam.

Speaking of Farrakhan, Ellison writes in his memoir: "He could only wax eloquent while scapegoating other groups." Ellison writes of the Nation of Islam itself: "In the NOI, if you're not angry in opposition to some group of people (whites, Jews, so-called 'sellout' blacks), you don't have religion."

He should know. He was speaking from his own personal experience in the cult.

Ellison was not happy when the Star Tribune published my column "Ellison remembers to forget" on its opinion page. In the column I restored some of his own history that he had left out of his memoir. He promptly sent out a fundraising letter to his fans asserting that my column represented "a new low" in the manifestation of anti-Muslim bigotry against him.

The cry of bigotry was another lie, but Ellison invited St. Paul Pioneer Press political reporter Rachel Stassen-Berger and others on his email list to fight back against his alleged victimization with a modest contribution to his campaign. I posted a copy of his fundraising letter to Stassen-Berger in "In which Keith Ellison finds me of use."

How has Ellison gotten away with his act? It helps to be a Democrat. It helps to be black. It helps to be a Muslim. It helps to have a sympathetic press. It helps to play to a Minneapolis crowd in a one-party town. And yet Ellison seeks to take his act to a national audience. He dreams of higher office.

In his memoir, Ellison recounts his conversion to Islam as a 19-year-old undergraduate at Detroit's Wayne State University. By the time Ellison graduated from law school at the University of Minnesota, however, he was toeing the Nation of Islam line. When Ellison first ran for public office in Minneapolis in 1998, he was a self-identified member of the Nation of Islam going under the name Keith Ellison-Muhammad.

Ellison was still talking up "Minister Farrakhan" at a National Lawyers Guild fundraiser for former Symbionese Liberation Army terrorist Kathleen Soliah/Sara Jane Olson in 2000. By 2002, however, when Ellison was first elected to the Minnesota legislature, and 2006, when he sought the DFL endorsement to succeed Sabo in Congress, Ellison had abandoned the Nation of Islam and returned to the fold of Islam.

So far as I know, Ellison is the only convert to Islam for whom Islam has served as a way station to the Nation of Islam. How did that work? That's one part of Ellison's secret history that actually remains secret.

Scott W. Johnson is a Minneapolis attorney and contributor to the site Power Line.

According to residents and local reports, the latest bout of violence erupted between two tribes after an incident in which a monkey that belonged to a shopkeeper from the Gaddadfa tribe attacked a group of schoolgirls who were passing by.

The monkey pulled off one of the girls’ head scarf.

Must have been an “Islamophobic” monkey.

Life means little to nothing among barbaric jihadists. This one is difficult to impossible for any Western, thinking individual to fathom: how does a monkey elicit this kind of deadly response over a hijab? Thoroughly mystifying, but telling about the kind of mindset that is inevitably going to be found among some Muslim immigrants who have now arrived on Western soil. Human lives lost over a monkey. Enough said.

At least 16 people died and 50 were wounded in Libya in four days of clashes between rival factions in the southern city of Sabha, a health official said on Sunday.

According to residents and local reports, the latest bout of violence erupted between two tribes after an incident in which a monkey that belonged to a shopkeeper from the Gaddadfa tribe attacked a group of schoolgirls who were passing by.

The monkey pulled off one of the girls’ head scarf, leading men from the Awlad Suleiman tribe to retaliate by killing three people from the Gaddadfa tribe as well as the monkey, according to a resident who spoke to Reuters….

Like other parts of Libya, Sabha has been periodically plagued by conflict since the uprising that toppled Muammar Gaddafi five years ago splintered the country into warring factions.

In the Sabha region, a hub for migrant and arms smuggling in Libya’s often neglected south, militia abuses and the deterioration of living conditions have been especially acute.

The Gaddadfa and the Awlad Suleiman represent the most powerful armed factions in the region.

During the latest clashes, which took place in the city center, initial attempts by tribal leaders to calm the fighting and arrange a ceasefire so that bodies could be recovered had failed, residents said…..

Trump is wise to go around the Media. Obama is running around the globe leading with his chin said his third term is ready to begin.Obama is staying in Washington and is too much of a narcissist to do anything but become the disloyal opposition and Trump gets the message.

The rules have changed. The Republicans should realize the same thing. The filibuster is dead to the Democrats. TheRepublicans better understand it and go right through the nuclear option and use the Queen’s option and use it for all appointees including the courts. They may as well enjoy the benefits of it now because Obama and Chuck Scummer are out for blood.

The untold story centers on the Clinton Foundation, which is not primarily a charitable organization. Schweizer cites the late Christopher Hitchens, hardly a member of the vast right-wing conspiracy, who wondered why third word oligarchs didn’t donate their money to charities in their own countries “rather than distributing it through the offices of an outfit run by a seasoned ex-presidential influence peddler.”

HOW THE NEW ATTORNEY GENERAL SHOULD PURSUE THE CLINTON FOUNDATIONHillary shouldn't be let off the hook.November 22, 2016 Lloyd Billingsley

November 22, 2016Danger! Obama could put Merrick Garland on Supreme Court in DecemberBy Ed StrakerLast week, I warned that if Congress adjourned for the year too soon, it could open a window to give President Obama a Supreme Court pick. That's because of a provision of the Constitution that allows the president to make recess appointments that can last two or more years. Now we get word that Congress is planning to adjourn early, which will give Obama an opportunity to appoint Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court.

This discussion is fairly complex, involving both constitutional and statutory law, so bear with me.

1) Why does Congress want to adjourn early? Members of Congress want to adjourn early this year so they can kill last-minute Obama regulations. According to a 1996 law, Congress has 60 legislative days in which to disapprove of presidential regulations. If Obama makes some horrendous last-minute regulations, by ending its session early, Congress has more time to overrule those regulations. That's why congressional leaders are tentatively planning to adjourn by December 9.

2) What does this have to do with the Supreme Court vacancy? Under Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution:

The President shall have power to fill up all vacancies that may happen during the recess of the Senate, by granting commissions which shall expire at the end of their next session.

Courts have interpreted "recess" to mean a ten or longer-day gap between sessions of the Senate. That means Obama, during the recess, could appoint Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court, since by adjourning for the year on December 9, the Senate will be gone for far longer than ten days.

3) But doesn't Congress have the power to say whether it is in recess or not? Kind of. In NLRB v. Noel Canning, the Supreme Court said Congress has the power to decide whether it is in recess or not, but only up to a certain point. If Congress does not at least hold pro forma sessions, it cannot say it is in recess (see pages 4-5 of the actual opinion).

4) But wouldn't an appointment last only until the beginning of January? Note the words of Article II, Section 2 above. Note the word next, as in "not this session, but the next one." The one that's going to last for two years. That's how long Garland would be on the court.

5) But Article II, Section 2 talks about vacancies occurring during a recess. This isn't the situation here. Not true. The actual "vacancy" does not have to begin during the recess. Only the appointment need occur during the recess. That's how the Article II, Section 2 has been interpreted:

Presidents have used the Recess Appointments Clause to fill not only vacancies that occur during recesses, but also those that initially arose when the Senate was in session.

6) But couldn't Congress declare itself in recess for purposes of recess appointments but still hold pro forma sessions? No.

7) You don't know what you're talking about! Ryan and McConnell would never be dumb enough to make such a move! Don't be so sure. Even if they are aware of Article II, Section 2, they may think Obama would never be bold enough to make such an appointment. Why else would they be making plans to give Obama such a window unless they never suspected he would use it?

I'm an attorney. I went to Harvard Law School. I studied constitutional law. I've spent years listening to people like Mark Levin, who are experts on constitutional law. Trust me when I tell you that this is a potential problem.

If Congress does recess on December 9 without coming back, Obama can appoint Garland to the Supreme Court. We could be in for two years of a solid leftist Supreme Court unless someone on Capitol Hill shows some common sense.

Ed Straker is the senior writer at NewsMachete.com and an attorney by training.

1) Why does Congress want to adjourn early? Members of Congress want to adjourn early this year so they can kill last-minute Obama regulations. According to a 1996 law, Congress has 60 legislative days in which to disapprove of presidential regulations. If Obama makes some horrendous last-minute regulations, by ending its session early, Congress has more time to overrule those regulations. That's why congressional leaders are tentatively planning to adjourn by December 9.

A new study reopens a debate over whether Google’s search results lean liberal, a bias that could influence public opinion.

An analysis by online-search marketer CanIRank.com found that 50 recent searches for political terms on Google surfaced more liberal-leaning webpages than conservative ones, as rated by a panel of four people.

Alphabet Inc.’s Google denies allegations of bias. “From the beginning, our approach to search has been to provide the most relevant answers and results to our users, and it would undermine people’s trust in our results, and our company, if we were to change course,” a Google spokeswoman said in an email

As Pence entered the theater, a wave of boos swept over the audience. And at the play’s end, the Aaron Burr character, speaking for the cast and the producers, read a statement directed at Pence:

“(W)e are the diverse America who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us, our planet, our children, our parents, or defend us and uphold our inalienable rights, sir. But we truly hope this show has inspired you to uphold our American values.”

In March, the casting call that went out for actors for roles in this musical celebration of “American values” read:

“Seeking NON-WHITE men and women.”

The arrogance, the assumed posture of moral superiority, the conceit of our cultural elite, on exhibit on that stage Friday night, is what Americans regurgitated when they voted for Donald Trump.

Yet the conduct of the “Hamilton” cast puts us on notice. The left neither accepts its defeat nor the legitimacy of Trump’s triumph.

The city of Bloomington, Indiana is changing the name of Columbus Day to 'Fall Holiday' and the name of Good Friday to 'Spring Holiday' to "be more inclusive" since some groups have complained about the traditional names.

The untold story centers on the Clinton Foundation, which is not primarily a charitable organization. Schweizer cites the late Christopher Hitchens, hardly a member of the vast right-wing conspiracy, who wondered why third word oligarchs didn’t donate their money to charities in their own countries “rather than distributing it through the offices of an outfit run by a seasoned ex-presidential influence peddler.”

Word is Trump is constructing a huge sign that says Welcome to Trumpland that will replace the torch on the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor.

Hillary doesn't know what the hell self-promotion is.

Trump's not even president, yet he is already interfering with British politics. He's indicated he would like to have Nigel Farange appointed ambassador to the US. This is the same Farange he said he wants to campaign against a wind farm off the coast near one of his golf resorts because it would spoil the view. Long distance NIMBY at its worst. Trump has already lost in the British courts three times on the issue.

In Scotland, he is in a dispute with local environmentalists because of a waiver he got for building a resort on protected sand dunes. The property like others in Britain is losing money, an instance where you can actually say his investments are built on sand.

As president-elect, Trump has also met with his Indian business partners.

It's been reported that during a congratulatory call from Argentina's president, Trump asked for Mr. Macri’s support for a project to build an office tower in Buenos Aires. A Japanese newspaper also reported that Macri also spoke to Ivanka during the call.

Speaking of Ivanka, eyes were raised when she sat in on Trump's meeting with Abe of Japan. She also was hacking her wares (pushing a $10k bracelet she designed) on 60 Minutes while Trump gave his interview.

And don't even mention the fact of all his kids being on the transition team or that they will becontrolling the Trump empire in his absence or that there is a rumor that Trump is thinking of making his sister an ambassador. Is it any wonder Trump's D.C. assets are filling up with foreign diplomats or that his partners (his kids) are sitting in on these meetings with foreign officials?

Conflict of interest thy name is Trump. Corruption, Inc.

Prosecute Hillary? You morons, if we were talking drugs, Hillary would be the teenage pusher on the street corner in her sneakers while Trump would be the drug lord sitting in his pimpmobile talking on a disposable cellphone to his capos (Ivanka, Jared, and Erik) who would be providing him with supply conditions for opioids on the East side and news on the latest shipments of coke coming out of Mexico.

Trump won’t pursue case against Clinton, his adviser saysPresident-elect Donald Trump has decided that his administration will not pursue criminal investigations related to former rival Hillary Clinton’s private email server or her family foundation, his campaign manager said.

Trump’s apparent decision, conveyed by campaign manager Kellyanne Conway in an interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,’’ would be an extraordinary break with political and legal protocol, which holds that the attorney general and FBI make decisions on whether to conduct investigations and file charges, free of pressure from the president...

Right, Kellyanne, that's the reason.

And if you believe that, you get a discount on some oceanfront property Trump Resorts and Properties is selling in the heart of Kansas.

The real reason is the same as for why presidents don't go after former presidents, what goes around comes around and you don't want to set the precedent and then end up in the docks yourself.

Howard Brookins Jr., the alderman for Chicago’s 21st ward, had publicly spoken out about a toothy menace plaguing the city’s garbage carts: urban squirrels, which in Brookins’s view were “aggressive,” and aggressively damaging the trash cart lids.

He now has another reason to dislike the rodents. One recently sent him to the hospital with a skull fracture in a “freak bicycle accident,” as the alderman wrote on Facebook.

Brookins was biking along Cal-Sag Trail on Nov. 13, when a squirrel darted into his path. The squirrel cut Brookins’s bike trip short by wrapping itself in the spokes of the alderman’s bicycle. The alderman flipped over the handlebars and landed with such a severe impact that he fractured his skull, broke his nose and knocked out a handful of teeth, the Chicago Tribune reported. A woman who passed by called 911. Brookins was only able to leave the hospital Thursday.

“I can think of no other reason for this squirrel’s actions than that it was like a suicide bomber, getting revenge,” the alderman said to the Tribune on Monday. He told the newspaper a full recovery was expected to take months...

That admission was contained in the Donald J. Trump Foundation’s IRS tax filings for 2015, which were posted online. The Post has reported cases in which Trump appeared to use foundation money to buy items for himself or to help one of his for-profit businesses...

It is smart politics and good business. The last thing we need is a Clinton martyr for the Democrats and media to rally behind. Obama will be running around with all the usual suspects and it will be Nixon and Watergate in reverse, 24/7 coverage with Bill and Hillary getting more publicity than The Kardashians. Hillary will be beatified as a patron saint of all the unjustly persecuted women.

All the children, in her thoughts and prayers, will be left as virtual orphans, as Saint Hillary is taken to The Tower of Trump to be thrown through the the glass ceiling 60 floors below. Oh, the injustice from the cruel uncaring walking dead of the GOP.

Also over the weekend, two Mexican marines who were among 10 victims gunned down in or near Acapulco, a once calm beach resort area that has become a battleground for cartel factions. The two marines had been assigned to the local military station and were both 27 years old.

As Breitbart Texas has previously reported, Guerrero is the same Mexican state where 43 education students form the rural community of Ayotzinapa were kidnapped by police officers and then turned over to cartel members, who apparently murdered and incinerated them in an open air pit near the municipal dumpster in Cocula. The official explanation of events that has been pushed by the Mexican government has been dis-proven by various experts, leading to multiple accusations of a cover-up. The case has drawn international attention as the parents and relatives of the missing 43 students continue to travel throughout Mexico and the U.S., pressuring the Mexican government for answers.

Doug Ford’s new book on the rise and fall of his late brother doesn’t tell us much we didn’t already know about the Ford years. Despite his thunderous pre-publication threats to call out their media foes and “rock the political world,” this is, for the Fords, a mild tell-little memoir with none of the revelations readers might expect from someone who saw the Ford drama from the inside. Still, its release comes as a timely reminder of how potent populism can be and how badly it can go wrong.It was only two weeks ago that Donald Trump shocked the world by winning election as 45th president of the United States. How could this have happened? How did all the journalists and pollsters and experts miss what was going on? As the results came in and Mr. Trump claimed victory, it was hard not to think back six years to the night when Rob Ford greeted cheering crowds after winning election as the 64th mayor of Toronto.

No one expected that either. When Rob Ford decided to run for mayor in 2010, he was discounted as a long-odds bet. A cranky suburban councillor known for his rants about cyclists, streetcars, potholes and wasteful spending, he had none of the gravitas you might expect in a serious candidate for mayor. But people didn’t want gravitas. They wanted change.Toronto had recently come through a strike by city workers that seemed to underline the failure of the usual politicians to tackle Toronto’s problems, from its chronic budget struggles to its underbuilt public transit. Mr. Ford stood out in early election debates, hammering home his message of respect for the taxpayer. He had a direct way about him that came as a gust of fresh air in a world grown tired of buttoned-down, scripted politicians.Many voters didn’t seem to mind that he had a history of dodgy behaviour, such as a drunk-driving episode or an abusive tirade aimed at some fellow fans at a hockey game. They didn’t care that he was often outrageous. That’s what they liked about him. It made them believe he would shake things up.Many of his followers lived in Toronto’s troubled inner suburbs. Like the rural and working-class white Americans who helped boost Mr. Trump to victory, they felt left behind and shut out. When Rob and Doug poured scorn on the pampered downtown elite, “Ford Nation” cheered. Trump followers cheered their champion for a similar message.

The parallels between the rise of these two figures – boastful mavericks vowing to run government like a business – continue to astonish. Both rode to success on a wave of discontent at traditional politics. Both had punchy, simplistic slogans (“Stop the gravy train” and “Make America great again”). Both won over many voters with their direct, unguarded, sometimes crude way of speaking. Both lashed out at the media when under scrutiny. Both surprised just about everyone by bursting out of the backfield and vanquishing more established opponents. Mr. Ford’s movement was in many ways a forerunner, on a much smaller scale, of the Trump phenomenon. Doug Ford tells the tale in Ford Nation: Two Brothers, One Vision – The True Story of the People’s Mayor, published Tuesday.Doug says that he and his brother started to work on the book last winter, but Rob’s declining health forced him to opt out. He died of cancer in March. Doug wants to show readers that his brother was not “a drug-fuelled, out-of-control monster,” but a good, if flawed, person devoted to helping others.Whether he was a successful mayor is another question. Things went well for him at first. He recorded a series of wins, from cancelling an unpopular tax to getting public transit declared an essential service.

But his failure to observe simple rules of conduct and reach out to political rivals soon led to troubles, from conflict-of-interest and integrity complaints to a botched attempt to redraw Toronto’s transit-building blueprints. This was not, as Doug would have it, the doing of the “vultures” in the media or an establishment that refused to give the Fords a break. His wounds were self-inflicted.We all know how the story turned out. Doug says that he was as shocked as anyone when reports came out of a video showing Rob appearing to smoke crack cocaine. Rob called the whole thing “ridiculous.” Doug says he was shocked anew when, months later, Rob finally admitted he had smoked crack, “probably in one of my drunken stupors.”What can we learn from the Ford saga that might apply to the Trump story? Despite all the parallels, they are different men in wildly different positions. Mr. Trump, for one thing, will have the nuclear codes.The saga is cautionary all the same. It teaches at least a couple of lessons. First, it is dangerous to underestimate the voters and their discontents. Give people the power to choose their leaders, and they are going to surprise you sometimes. Second, it is dangerous to hand power to a loose cannon on the hope that power will moderate him.Long before Donald Trump came along, Rob Ford showed both the power and the perils of populism."

naw, Rob Ford was notable for being a buffoon before being elected. Trump is also notable for being a buffoon. I doubt Trump will flame out in a drunken crack haze. His flameout will probably be much worse and harm many more people.

I commented here a few times, I think, how Trump's rise to power reminded me of Rob Fords rise in Toronto. Ford became a laughingstock in the US. Trump already is around the world. Hopefully Trump won't flame out as Ford did. The Trump scandals and conflicts will probably be so numerous that folk will simply become desensitized to them. Like this recent stuff about his charity. Heck, his charity illegally gave 25k to Pam Bondi who just happened to not pursue charges against Trump University and now she is in line for a cabinet appointment. Go figure. Heck, Putin got rich running Russia why not Trump benefitting from being POTUS.

What have you got against the Globe MOME? It is considered by most to be a conservative rag.

I think the Dems and the LNM actually tried to rig the election, there is plenty of evidence to believe it, but I think they underestimated Trump's ability to overcome the rigging. That's why they were all in the shocked fetal position on Nov 9. Trump recanted his statement about Obama's birth place. But I guess you have chosen not to allow him to change his mind? A card laid is a card played?

I wonder if the G & E will print a story about the similarities between Obama and Kanye West? After all, they are both narcissistic assholes, are extremely over rated and are now suddenly panicking over their legacies?

Welp: Trump “inclined to select” Romney as Secretary of State, per WSJ

POSTED AT 4:31 PM ON NOVEMBER 22, 2016 BY ALLAHPUNDIT

C’mon, man. Is this actually happening? Or is this all part of building Romney up publicly, the better to devastate him when Trump yells “psych!” and names Giuliani Secretary of State instead?

As a basic matter of spoils-system politics, how will Trump justify passing over the many loyalists in his orbit who crave a position as august as this in favor of a guy who devoted an entire speech to attacking him viciously? It’s the most bizarre detente in modern American political history.

Delaying Mr. Trump’s decision about secretary of state is an internal tug of war between supporters of Mr. Romney, and those urging the selection of former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani. A third group is pressing the president-elect to keep searching for candidates.

The next U.S. president is also likely to name retired Marine Gen. James Mattis to serve as secretary of defense in his administration, and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley is the leading candidate to be the next ambassador to the United Nations, the people said…

The New York businessman views Mr. Romney as the prototypical choice to be the nation’s top diplomat, and a group of advisers inside the transition are pushing him to select the 2012 Republican presidential nominee. Two people said Mr. Trump is inclined to select Mr. Romney…

But another faction is still pushing for Mr. Giuliani, who was one of Mr. Trump’s earliest supporters and has openly campaigned for the job. Mr. Giuliani, after leaving the mayor’s office, created a security consulting firm that has contracts with some foreign governments, including Qatar and Colombia.

Trump supposedly likes Romney in the role because he “looks the part of a top diplomat right out of ‘central casting,'” which is both true and a weirdly superficial reason to put someone in charge of U.S. diplomacy. But here’s the wrinkle: Romney is well qualified and would be a strong pick, especially if you’re worried that Trump’s admiration for Putin would lead him to roll over on Russia absent strong pushback from his inner circle. (Raise your hand if you saw Trump hiring a guy who famously warned years ago that Russia remains America’s preeminent “geopolitical foe.” Raise both hands if you saw him being hired for foreign policy.) Romney’s temperament is better suited to a diplomatic role than the pugnacious Giuliani’s is, he wouldn’t have the ethical conflicts mentioned in the excerpt that Rudy has, and most importantly he’d be less likely to be a yes-man in the position — I think. I respect Romney enough to believe that he wouldn’t keep quiet about bad decisions or rubber-stamp irresponsible foreign-policy measures for fear of getting on Trump’s bad side again, but it’s true that Mitt would need to prove his loyalty at first in a way that Giuliani wouldn’t. Rudy might be able to speak more freely at the beginning than Mitt would. How much is that worth?

It will be beyond strange, less than a month removed from Trumpers like Sean Hannity vowing to call out big-name #NeverTrumpers on air if Trump lost, to have one of the GOP’s most prominent #NeverTrumpers installed as chief diplomat under Trump. I can’t imagine how the first round of media interviews with Mitt will go. “Do you regret demanding that Trump release his tax returns? Do you regret calling him ‘a phony, a fraud’ and lamenting his ‘bullying, the greed, the showing off, the misogyny, the absurd third-grade theatrics'”? “Bizarre” doesn’t begin to cover this; it’s a Twilight Zone episode. And maybe even more bizarre is wanting Nikki Haley as ambassador to the UN. Where did that come from? She was also supposedly under consideration for Secretary of State initially, which made little sense since she has no diplomatic experience. Now Trump’s eyeing her for a different diplomatic post. And she, like Romney, was a Trump critic for much of the campaign, although she came around in the final few months. All I can think of to explain it is that Team Trump sees her as someone who might end up as a prominent, media-friendly critic of the administration from the right if she’s not coopted early, so they’re going to dangle a job in front of her to buy her silence. As the old saying goes about critics in politics, better to have them inside the tent pissing out than outside the tent pissing in.

Update: Here’s something Trump said to the New York Times editorial board this afternoon. How do you square this with choosing Romney?

Ayotte was ruled out because she was mildly critical of Trump but the guy who savaged him and teased the media with gossip of “bombshells” in Trump’s missing tax returns is okay?

Update: It’s worth saying, even though it should go without saying, that Trump picking Romney for State would be an especially encouraging sign about the success of his presidency because it’ll suggest that he’s willing to put pride aside for the good of the country. One thing to worry about with a strongman figure is vindictiveness towards his opponents. Putting Romney in the cabinet would be as dramatic a break from that as you could reasonably expect from Trump, short of him appointing Hillary Clinton to something.

However, because of the way the deal is written and with the size of the US economy, the US pulling out will kill it for everyone else. If there are any countries that would still like to be in it when the US pulls out, I feel sorry for them.

I did Quirk and I have considered crafting a response. However I am on the road at the moment (Savannah Georgia) and that coupled with your response when I did address your concerns a few months back has led me not to bother. I do think it is an important issue and I respect your opinion so hopefully I'll find time to debate you when I settle in back to work in a week or so.

Donald Trump has disavowed the so-called alt-right, a movement of right-wing activists often linked to white nationalism, after a rally on Saturday in which members gave Nazi salutes and shouted "Hail Trump".

...

Mr Trump's decision not to encourage a prosecution into Mrs Clinton was a clear break with what had been a cornerstone of his campaign, and some of Mr Trump's own supporters attacked him for a "broken promise".

...

Mr Trump, who has previously called climate change a "Chinese hoax," expressed more openness toward the concept.

US President Barack Obama has awarded the nation's highest civilian honour to 21 ground-breaking actors, musicians, athletes and innovators who inspired him over the years and "helped make me who I am".

...

In the film world, Mr Obama honoured Tom Hanks, Robert De Niro, Robert Redford and Cicely Tyson.

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Who says Presidential Medal of Freedom honourees have to bring an ID to get into the White House?

Apparently, the Secret Service does, as DeGeneres experienced a delay in getting into the ceremony.

Though the fossils' small stature and brains might fit best with H. habilis, their relatively long legs and modern body proportions place them in H. erectus, says David Lordkipanidze, general director of the Georgian National Museum and head of the Dmanisi team. "We can't forget that these are not just heads rolling around, dispersing around the globe," Potts adds. Like Rightmire, he thinks the fossils represent an early, primitive form of H. erectus, which had evolved from a H. habilis–like ancestor and still bore some primitive features shared with H. habilis.

Regardless of the Dmanisi people's precise identity, researchers studying them agree that the wealth of fossils and artifacts coming from the site offer rare evidence for a critical moment in the human saga. They show that it didn't take a technological revolution or a particularly big brain to cross continents. And they suggest an origin story for first migrants all across Asia: Perhaps some members of the group of primitive H. erectus that gave rise to the Dmanisi people also pushed farther east, where their offspring evolved into later, bigger-brained H. erectus on Java (at the same time as H. erectus in Africa was independently evolving bigger brains and bodies). "For me, Dmanisi could be the ancestor for H. erectus in Java," says paleoanthropologist Yousuke Kaifu of the National Museum of Nature and Science in Tokyo.

In spite of the remaining mysteries about the ancient people who died on this windy promontory, they have already taught researchers lessons that extend far beyond Georgia. And for that, Lordkipanidze is grateful. At the end of a barbecue in the camp house here, he raised a glass of wine and offered a toast: "I want to thank the people who died here," he said.

After a skirmish with a rival gang, usually over food, females would groom males that had fought hardest, while snapping at those that abstained.

When the next battle came along, both those singled out for attention and those aggressively shunned would participate more vigorously in combat, according to a study published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

Female grooming and aggression "both appear to function as social incentives that effectively promote male participation in intergroup fights", a research team from Switzerland and South Africa reported.

They had observed four vervet monkey groups at a game reserve in South Africa for two years.

Vervet monkeys live in mixed-gender groups and both sexes take part in frequent battles with rival troupes. Only a handful fight each time.

Males are larger than females and have longer canine teeth, making their presence valuable in the front lines.

Success in battle ensures control over territory and food sources -- a key concern for females, who take care of the young.

But why would males risk involvement in a potentially high-stakes battle just for a bit of female attention? It's all about sex, the researchers believe.

"Receiving punishment" from females for not taking part in battles "could damage the... male's social relationship(s)" either with the female in question or "other female group members", the researchers wrote.

On the other hand, being rewarded could "potentially signal to other female group members that the... male is a valuable social partner", likely boosting "male mating success".

In group animals, such as humans, a delicate balance must be maintained between participating in hunting or defence, which can be risky, and free-riding, which is less hazardous but can lead to social rejection.

The riskiest group activity of all is warfare, and few animals other than humans and monkeys engage in it.

I did Quirk and I have considered crafting a response. However I am on the road at the moment (Savannah Georgia) and that coupled with your response when I did address your concerns a few months back has led me not to bother. I do think it is an important issue and I respect your opinion so hopefully I'll find time to debate you when I settle in back to work in a week or so.

Always open to a debate, Ash, but my question was only to set the basis for another discussion. Found an article that talks about trade and changes in GDP growth and the relationship (or lack therof) between them. I thought the article was pretty good and brought up some things I hadn't thought about. It was a bit dismal but I suspect many of the assumptions were pretty good.

And as he crawls, with a look of disgust he moves around the effete body of Idaho Bob, supine, spineless, pulling the dust into him as if he would be absorbed into the earth so as to hide himself below its mantle like a worm, a bizarre grotesque unfitted for the light above.

“It’s hard to overstate and hard to summarize Jared’s role in the campaign,” says billionaire Peter Thiel, the only significant Silicon Valley figure to publicly back Trump. “If Trump was the CEO, Jared was effectively the chief operating officer.”

“Jared Kushner is the biggest surprise of the 2016 election,” adds Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google, who helped design the Clinton campaign’s technology system. “Best I can tell, he actually ran the campaign and did it with essentially no resources.”

No resources at the beginning, perhaps. Underfunded throughout, for sure. But by running the Trump campaign–notably, its secret data operation–like a Silicon Valley startup, Kushner eventually tipped the states that swung the election. And he did so in manner that will change the way future elections will be won and lost. President Obama had unprecedented success in targeting, organizing and motivating voters. But a lot has changed in eight years. Specifically social media. Clinton did borrow from Obama’s playbook but also leaned on traditional media. The Trump campaign, meanwhile, delved into message tailoring, sentiment manipulation and machine learning. The traditional campaign is dead, another victim of the unfiltered democracy of the Web–and Kushner, more than anyone not named Donald Trump, killed it.

That achievement, coupled with the personal trust Trump has in him, uniquely positions Kushner to be a power broker of the highest order for at least four years. “Every president I’ve ever known has one or two people he intuitively and structurally trusts,” says former secretary of state Henry Kissinger, who has known Trump socially for decades and is currently advising the president-elect on foreign policy issues. “I think Jared might be that person.”

Despite his itchy Twitter finger, Trump is a Luddite. He reportedly gets his news from print and television, and his version of e-mail is to handwrite a note that his assistant will scan and attach. Among those in his close circle, Kushner was the natural pick to create a modern campaign. Yes, like Trump he’s primarily a real estate guy, but he had invested more broadly, including in media (in 2006 he bought the New York Observer) and digital commerce (he helped launch Cadre, an online marketplace for big real estate deals). More important, he knew the right crowd: co-investors in Cadre include Thiel and Alibaba’s Jack Ma–and Kushner’s younger brother, Josh, a formidable venture capitalist who also cofounded the $2.7 billion insurance unicorn Oscar Health.

I called some of my friends from Silicon Valley, some of the best digital marketers in the world, and asked how you scale this stuff,” Kushner says. “They gave me their subcontractors.”===Just as Trump’s unorthodox style allowed him to win the Republican nomination while spending far less than his more traditional opponents, Kushner’s lack of political experience became an advantage. Unschooled in traditional campaigning, he was able to look at the business of politics the way so many Silicon Valley entrepreneurs have sized up other bloated industries.

Television and online advertising? Small and smaller. Twitter and Facebook would fuel the campaign, as key tools for not only spreading Trump’s message but also targeting potential supporters, scraping massive amounts of constituent data and sensing shifts in sentiment in real time.

“We weren’t afraid to make changes. We weren’t afraid to fail. We tried to do things very cheaply, very quickly. And if it wasn’t working, we would kill it quickly,” Kushner says. “It meant making quick decisions, fixing things that were broken and scaling things that worked.”

This wasn’t a completely raw startup. Kushner’s crew was able to tap into the Republican National Committee’s data machine, and it hired targeting partners like Cambridge Analytica to map voter universes and identify which parts of the Trump platform mattered most: trade, immigration or change. Tools like Deep Root drove the scaled-back TV ad spending by identifying shows popular with specific voter blocks in specific regions–say, NCIS for anti-ObamaCare voters or The Walking Dead for people worried about immigration. Kushner built a custom geo-location tool that plotted the location density of about 20 voter types over a live Google Maps interface.

Soon the data operation dictated every campaign decision: travel, fundraising, advertising, rally locations–even the topics of the speeches. “He put all the different pieces together,” Parscale says. “And what’s funny is the outside world was so obsessed about this little piece or that, they didn’t pick up that it was all being orchestrated so well.”

For fundraising they turned to machine learning, installing digital marketing companies on a trading floor to make them compete for business. Ineffective ads were killed in minutes, while successful ones scaled. The campaign was sending more than 100,000 uniquely tweaked ads to targeted voters each day. In the end, the richest person ever elected president, whose fundraising effort was rightly ridiculed at the beginning of the year, raised more than $250 million in four months–mostly from small donors.

As the election barreled toward its finale, Kushner’s system, with its high margins and up-to-the-minute voter data, provided both ample cash and the insight on where to spend it. When the campaign registered the fact that momentum in Michigan and Pennsylvania was turning Trump’s way, Kushner unleashed tailored TV ads, last-minute rallies and thousands of volunteers to knock on doors and make phone calls.

And until the final days of the campaign, he did all this without anyone on the outside knowing about it. For those who can’t understand how Hillary Clinton could win the popular vote by at least 2 million yet lose handily in the electoral college, perhaps this provides some clarity. If the campaign’s overarching sentiment was fear and anger, the deciding factor at the end was data and entrepreneurship.

Yesterday, I really didn't have time to respond to your comments on building permits in Jerusalem so I'll try do it now.

For context, this started with Bob's comment...

Times of Israel reports a post Trump election building boom in Jerusalem.

And my response...

No doubt, Jewish building as they don't allow building permits to the Arab residents there.

At this point you put up a couple of articles showing housing projects that had been approved for Arab neighborhoods in Jerusalem (along with some pretty nasty comments I must say including the one above).

Now, I suspect there is a misunderstanding here. Not about the insults. I've been called moron before and won't argue the charge other than to point out that moron is a point on a continuum and just as there are points above it there are also points below it (to use a bit of wisdom Doug offered up above). To judge where we are relative to each other on that continuum, I'll merely point to the proof you offer on this point.

This was my initial comment...

No doubt Jewish building as they don't allow building permits to the Arab residents there.

Please note the bolded words ‘building permits’.

You disputed my comment by putting up two articles showing that Arab projects were being approved in Jerusalem. In response, all I can say is that you might not have read my comment carefully (possible), or it might be you who does not KNOW shit about Israeli land usage rules (probable), or perhaps it is both.

The article you cited and linked in your post on the 2200 units that were approved provides a good example.

If you just read the date and the headline, you might think this is a new initiative. In fact, the same 2200 unit project began as a project offered up by the Jerusalem mayor back in 2009, seven or eight years ago. He’s been pushing it that long. It was put on hold in 2011 because of strong right wing opposition. It was revived in 2014 and as pointed out in your article Netanyahu signed off on it after his election earlier this year as a sop to the West and to get the Obama administration off his back. However, as you can imagine given the size of the project, right wing politicians are still trying to kill it.

But let’s assume the project has been signed off and there is currently every intention of eventually completing it. There is still this from the article you linked to: However, he emphasized that this preliminary plan was more of an outline and would not result in the immediate issuance of building permits – a process he said would likely take several more years.

“Now the residents need to have architects and planners make a detailed plan which will be approved,” he said. “This is the first important stage of the process, but there’s still a ways to go.”

The project started in 2009, extending over 7 or 8 years, and it will be several more years before building permits are issued. [Sounds like Lockheed’s development plan for the F-35]

In the decade plus for this project, how many thousands of units do you think have been planned, developed, permitted, and built for Israelis? Do you think any of them have trouble getting permits? Heck, Israel pays them to go live in settlements in the occupied territories. Do you think they would deny them the permits once the plan is completed? Not likely.

But there is something else.

This whole project got its final approval this year, an election year, when Hillary seemed a lock and when all the Israeli papers were talking about Obama and a possible ‘October surprise’ as a final jab at Israel. The most widespread fear was of some action taken by the US at the UN.

But now everything is changed. Trump is president-elect. He has made a number of pro-Israeli statements such as ‘the settlements aren’t an obstacle to peace’ and ‘he plans to move the US embassy to Jerusalem’ just to mention a couple.

Now the Israel papers have articles in them saying it’s the dawn of a new day and it’s full speed ahead on the settlements. Right-wing MKs are floating a bill saying the existing Israeli settlements should be absorbed into Israel. The environment and outlook has changed.

The Arab units in the other article you put up face the same problems as the 2200 above. In fact, there are even more serious objection to some because if built the would connect the outskirts of Bethlehem and Jerusalem forming a contiguous line between the two cities. And as of now, there is no corresponding units approved for Jews which right wing council members say would affect the Jewish majority in the city.

The article Idaho Bob posted that started our discussion informs the new state of affairs in Jerusalem…

Given the right wing, nationalistic trend in the country and the government, as well as, Trump’s win I suspect the building permits for those 2200 Arab housing units will be a long time coming. If ever. In fact, I’ll bet you a nickel most of the proposed Jewish units are built well before the first of those 2200 Arab units comes close to being built.

Keith Ellison Headlined Fundraiser For Muslim Activist Who Called For Palestinians To Embrace “The Jihad Way”

By Pamela Geller - on November 22, 2016

They smear Steve Bannon, a great friend of Israel, while this operative led Hamas rallies. The enemedia silence about Ellison shows that their outrage over Bannon’s supposed “anti-Semitism” is entirely feigned and hypocritical. They don’t care about Jews. They just care about bashing Trump.

Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison, the favorite to take over as chairman of the Democratic National Committee, campaigned in 2009 for a Libya-born activist who once called on Palestinians to embrace “the jihad way” in order to get free of Israeli control.

The activist, Esam Omeish, a former candidate for Virginia state delegate, has also praised one of the founders of Hamas and commended the work of Palestinian suicide bombers.

Omeish’s positions had been publicized when Ellison, the first Mulsim [sic] ever elected to Congress, headlined the July 2009 fundraiser for Omeish, who served as president from 2004 to 2008 of the Muslim American Society, a Muslim Brotherhood-linked group.

“The very fact that you have ran a honorable campaign in this heated primary shows victory. Don’t stop working, lay it all on the line,” Ellison said at the event, according to Omeish’s campaign website.

Photos from the event show Ellison chatting with Omeish and other activists, such as Nihad Awad, the founder of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

Progressive liberals, including Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, have pushed for Ellison to be named as head of the DNC. But Ellison’s critics have pointed to his links to extremist organizations such as the Nation of Islam — he first ran for office in 1998 under the name Keith Ellison-Muhammad — and his comments regarding Israel as cause for concern.

The Washington Free Beacon reported further on Monday that Ellison, who entered Congress in 2007, also took a trip to Mecca, the Islamic holy site, in late-2008. The junket, which cost $13,500 and sparked a House Ethics investigation, was paid for by the Muslim American Society (MAS).

It is unclear if Omeish was in charge of MAS when Ellison took the trip.

A year before, Omeish was forced by then-Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine to resign his position on a state immigration commission after video footage from 2000 surfaced showing him condemning Israel and endorsing “the jihad way.”

“We the Muslims of the Washington metropolitan area are here today…to tell our brothers and sisters in [Palestine] that you have learned the way, that you have known that the jihad way is the way to liberate your land,” Omeish told the crowd, which included protesters holding signs equating the Star of David to a Nazi swastika.

“Dr. Omeish is a respected physician and community leader, yet I have been made aware of certain statements he has made which concern me,” Kaine said in 2007, after announcing that Omeish would be replaced at the Virginia immigration commission because of the video.

Omeish, who ended up losing the Virginia delegate contest, spouted fiery, anti-Israel rhetoric again at a rally held in Oct. 2000 in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington D.C. There, he praised an intifada the Palestinians were waging against Israel.

“We need to congratulate our brothers and sisters in Philistine [Palestine] for their bravery, for their giving up their lives for the sake of Allah and for the sake of Al-Aqsa.”

Omeish was referring either to the Al-Aqsa intifada, a deadly campaign in which Palestinian suicide bombers carried out attacks against Israelis, or the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade, a terrorist group that formed in the West Bank in 2000.

In 2004, after he took over at MAS, Omeish praised Ahmed Yassin, one of the founders of Hamas, the terrorist group.

“Bullets and bombs are going off upon our brothers in Philistine [Palestine] and we are sitting here and saying [Arabic phrase], instead of feeling that this is our tax money and it is our dollars that killed our beloved Sheikh Ahmed Yassin,” Omeish said during a speech in Overland Park, Kan....

There is much discussion about whether Trump's Justice Department should investigate and prosecute Hillary on the email scandal. But there is no such discussion about whether Obama should pardon Hillary. At this point, Trump said he does not want to "hurt" Hillary, but I believe that this may change depending on how Democrats respond to Trump's agenda and confirmation of his nominees.

The FBI investigated Hillary on the email scandal and is investigating the William Jefferson Clinton Foundation, aka the William J. Corleone Foundation, which involves Hillary, Bill, and Chelsea. As we all know, the FBI concluded that Hillary did not violate the applicable laws because she did not have criminal intent.

We have to wait for the conclusion of the FBI investigation of the Foundation to see the Bureau's recommendation. This will probably take months. If the FBI recommends criminal charges arising out of the operation of the Foundation, then the Trump Justice Department will most likely indict. To prosecute Hillary on the email scandal, though, will require the Justice Department to do a thorough investigation with a grand jury to subpoena witnesses and documents. The question is, should Trump order such an investigation now by appointing a special prosecutor?

The most important immediate issues facing Trump are to repeal Obamacare, reduce tax rates, and deal with immigration by cutting off aid to sanctuary cities, building the wall, deporting illegals with criminal records, reviewing those who violate their visas by overstaying, and closely vetting immigrants from Muslim countries. Along with these issues, Trump must get his appointees confirmed. There is already opposition to Jeff Sessions, and there will be opposition to the Supreme Court nominee.

Given this, it is crucial that Trump's appointees get confirmed and that the immediate agenda issues be implemented. Appointing a special prosecutor for the email scandal at this time is a distraction from these crucial issues. Trump is trying to unify the country to get his agenda moving. He said he is not investigating Hillary for the email scandal. This is part of his attempt to unify the country and win some Democratic support for his agenda and for his appointees. Also, by saying he does not want to "hurt" Hillary, Trump is removing any reason for Obama to pardon Hillary, which leaves Hillary's fate to Trump.

The ball is now in the Democrats' court. Will they accept the good-faith move by Trump and reciprocate by confirming his appointees and not obstructing his agenda?

If the Democrats go to war on the appointees, as they did with Judge Bork, and obstruct every part of the Trump agenda, then the reason for not appointing a special prosecutor to investigate Hillary's email scandal is no longer applicable.

I believe that Trump is using Hillary to deal. It is up to the Democrats to decide whether to abandon and sacrifice Hillary so they can obstruct Trump's appointees and agenda.

In the second stage, the individual recognizes that denial cannot continue, and he becomes frustrated – either at proximate individuals (family members or acquaintances) or at society as a whole.

When Hillary realized she had lost, she went into a rage. According to some Secret Service officers, "she began yelling, screaming obscenities, and pounding furniture. She picked up objects and threw them at attendants and staff. She was in an uncontrollable rage."

November 23, 2016Hillary Clinton's Five Stages of GriefBy Tiberiu Dianu

Tyrrell’s reporting remains a thorn in the side of the Clintons more than two decades after the American Spectator published its Troopergate stories detailing Bill Clinton’s escapades as told by his Arkansas security detail, stories that first referenced Paula Jones and pushed the president on the road to impeachment. Nearly 19 years after Hillary Clinton imagined a “vast, right-wing conspiracy” out to get her husband, the cabal’s charter member again relies on the accounts of the Clintons’ long-suffering security to unmask the public faces worn by the power couple now out of power.

“In the ’90s, we published several pieces that documented her throwing lamps and books,” Tyrrell tells Breitbart. “This happened pretty often. She has such a foul mouth that the Arkansas state troopers learned a thing or two from her. She has a foul mouth and a good throwing arm.”

The policies are determined by the administration. Unless I'm missing something, the ambassador merely presents those position in a formal setting. I can see where it would give an engaging politician a lot of face time in front of a huge audience. Perhaps, that's enough.

We’ve discussed U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara here many times in the past. His pursuit of government corruption wherever it may be found and the prosecution of those who betray the trust of the public has become legendary. That’s why, when he told reporters earlier this year that he detected an “air of corruption” in the executive branch of New York’s state government people were rightly looking over their shoulders. Now his work in that area is moving into high gear. Bharara has made his case to a grand jury and been given the green light to take eight top aides and associates of Governor Andrew Cuomo to trial on charges of corruption. (New York Observer)

An array of figures from Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s inner circle—including a confidante so close the governor called him “my father’s third son”—got slapped with a sweeping 14-count federal indictment today, which alleges they colluded in a pair of schemes to solicit bribes for state assistance and to rig economic development contracts for companies that gave to Cuomo’s campaigns.

A grand jury gave crusading U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara the go-ahead to prosecute his case against Joseph Percoco, the governor’s former campaign manager, deputy executive secretary, political fixer and body man, on charges he solicited bribes and a “low-show job” for his wife from two major Cuomo contributors. In return, the federal government alleges Percoco pressured executive agencies and entities to offer assistance and loosen regulations for the companies’ operations in New York State—and lied about the arrangement on disclosure forms.There are more shady deals described in these charges than you can shake a stick at, but one of the biggest is Cuomo’s “Buffalo Billion” initiative, which Bharara described as little more than, “a cash cow for friends of the administration” who funneled money into the governor’s campaign war chest. Cuomo himself has somehow managed to avoid indictment thus far and still insists that he was utterly oblivious to any nefarious dealings allegedly going on in his administration. Pull the other one, Governor. It’s got bells on it.

As a side note, I find it interesting that when aides to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie are charged or convicted on something related to Bridgegate it consumes the news cycle for days on end. When the same thing happens to Andrew Cuomo it’s apparently a “local news story.” Funny how that works, eh?

The Hillary Clinton Connection

There’s one last thing to consider which you’re going to want to keep your eye on. This investigation has been going on for well over a year without making very many headlines. That’s not how Bharara operates. His rare media statements are short and businesslike. But he promised action on this and after the long and challenging investigation was complete he delivered. Remember that Preet owes no loyalty to either party and is absolutely relentless. When he detected corruption in the state legislature in 2014, he launched a lengthy investigation which resulted in former Assembly speaker Sheldon Silver – arguably the most powerful Democrat in the state – being sent to prison. He followed that up by sending the state’s senior Republican to keep him company behind bars.

Bharara is the guy who is currently going after Anthony Weiner… an investigation which produced all sorts of interesting information. And in August he announced that he was investigating corruption at the New York offices of the Clinton Foundation.

As I said at the time, this isn’t the sort of investigation which was going to be wrapped up in a matter of weeks. These things take time. The FBI may have thrown in the towel on going after Hillary Clinton. Even Donald Trump may be making noises about not needing to “lock her up.” But out there in New York City Preet Bharara is still grinding away at his job. And if he has the Clintons in his sights, don’t expect him to simply go away because the election is over. Preet Bharara is the honey badger of corruption investigations and he is not afraid to do his job.

Finally, instead of rethinking their exploded economic myths and abandoning a divisive identity politics, many Dems want to keep steaming full speed ahead toward the next electoral iceberg. Look at the two candidates touted as replacements for the tarnished DNC interim chair Donna Brazile. Howard “Screaming” Dean, erstwhile presidential candidate and governor of a state with fewer people than Fresno County, is a tax-and-spend, “fair share,” regulation-happy, identity politics tribune and radical egalitarian redistributionist of the kind whose policies have given us sluggish growth, job-killing regulations, and astronomical debt. The other choice is Minnesota Congressman Keith Ellison, a zealous Muslim convert by way of the ultra-racist Nation of Islam. He is tainted with anti-Semitism, apologetics for Iran and terrorists like Hamas, virulent hatred of Israel, wacky 9-11 conspiracy theories, and the usual progressive blame-America-first foreign policy and magical-thinking economics. No surprise that he has been endorsed by the Jacobin Cherokee Elizabeth Warren, and ex-Senator Harry Reid, Obama’s legislative Luca Brasi.

The few sane Democrats counseling a change of course are unlikely to halt the self-destruction of so many failed progressive gods. Only Trump can prevent that “consummation devoutly to be wished” by failing to keep his campaign promises.

"As the election barreled toward its finale, Kushner’s system, with its high margins and up-to-the-minute voter data, provided both ample cash and the insight on where to spend it. When the campaign registered the fact that momentum in Michigan and Pennsylvania was turning Trump’s way, Kushner unleashed tailored TV ads, last-minute rallies and thousands of volunteers to knock on doors and make phone calls.

And until the final days of the campaign, he did all this without anyone on the outside knowing about it. For those who can’t understand how Hillary Clinton could win the popular vote by at least 2 million yet lose handily in the electoral college, perhaps this provides some clarity. If the campaign’s overarching sentiment was fear and anger, the deciding factor at the end was data and entrepreneurship."

Journalists are shown a 3,800 year-old pottery jug with a rare statuette, discovered during excavation in central Israel, at the Israel Antiquities Authority offices in JerusalemView photosJournalists are shown a 3,800 year-old pottery jug with a rare statuette, discovered during excavation in central Israel, at the Israel Antiquities Authority offices in Jerusalem November 23, 2016. REUTERS/Ammar Awad

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A team of Israeli archaeologists and high school students have unearthed a 3,800-year-old pottery jug bearing a statuette of a person who appears deep in thought, sitting with knees bent and head rested on hand.

The Israel Antiquities Authority said on Wednesday the jug, dating back to what archaeologists refer to as the Middle Bronze Age, had been found during an excavation in Yehud, a Tel Aviv suburb.

"It seems that at first the jug, which is typical of the period, was prepared and afterwards the unique sculpture was added, the likes of which have never before been discovered in previous research," said Gilad Itach, who directed the excavation, which included teenage diggers.

The statuette is about 18 cm (7 inches) tall.

"One can see that the face of the figure seems to be resting on its hand as if in a state of reflection," he said.

Other vessels and metal items were found such as daggers, arrowheads, an axe head, sheep bones and what are believed to be the bones of a donkey.

Itach said the collection seemed to be funeral offerings, likely of an important member of an ancient community.

"To the best of my knowledge such a rich funerary assemblage that also includes such a unique pottery vessel has never before been discovered in the country," he said.

The statuette was the latest discovery by the Israel Antiquities Authority, which is charged with carrying out excavations at all major building sites across the country to make sure no relics are destroyed.

In recent months its teams have found treasures from gold coins to an ancient mosaic.

Last Thursday, the activists held a conference call with Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta and campaign general counsel Marc Elias to make their case, according to a source briefed on the call. The academics presented findings showing that in Wisconsin, Clinton received 7 percent fewer votes in counties that relied on electronic-voting machines compared with counties that used optical scanners and paper ballots. Based on this statistical analysis, Clinton may have been denied as many as 30,000 votes; she lost Wisconsin by 27,000. While it’s important to note the group has not found proof of hacking or manipulation, they are arguing to the campaign that the suspicious pattern merits an independent review — especially in light of the fact that the Obama White House has accused the Russian government of hacking the Democratic National Committee.

According to current tallies, Trump has won 290 Electoral College votes to Clinton’s 232, with Michigan’s 16 votes not apportioned because the race there is still too close to call. It would take overturning the results in both Wisconsin (10 Electoral College votes) and Pennsylvania (20 votes), in addition to winning Michigan’s 16, for Clinton to win the Electoral College. There is also the complicating factor of “faithless electors,” or members of the Electoral College who do not vote according to the popular vote in their states. At least six electoral voters have said they would not vote for Trump, despite the fact that he won their states.

The Clinton camp is running out of time to challenge the election…

…Some Clinton allies are intent on pushing the issue. This afternoon, Huma Abedin’s sister Heba encouraged her Facebook followers to lobby the Justice Department to audit the 2016 vote.

HevaAny male of straight sexual orientation that behaves like a Diva. A Heva can not be a gay male, they are, by definition, Divas.John is being pissy because he can't watch the game right now. He's such a Heva.#diva #pissy #snooty #fussy #spoiled #brattyby Gravesly May 28, 2010

Update (AP): I … don’t quite understand why a surgeon with no experience in housing has been tapped to lead Housing and Urban Development, especially after his own spokesman all but said he’s unqualified to serve in the cabinet. But to the victors go the spoils. And Carson has been a loyal Trump ally.

Haley was born Nimrata Randhawa[1][2] in Bamberg, South Carolina, on January 20, 1972, to an Indian Sikh family.[12] She was "always called Nikki, which means 'little one,' by her family."[13] Her parents, Ajit Singh Randhawa and Raj Kaur Randhawa, are migrants from Amritsar District, Punjab, India, where Ajit had been a professor at Punjab Agricultural University. Haley's parents immigrated to Canada after her father received a scholarship offer from the University of British Columbia. After earning his PhD in 1969, Ajit moved his young family to South Carolina to accept a position as a professor at Voorhees College.[14]

Dutch member of Parliament Geert Wilders (C), of the far-right Freedom Party (PVV), speaks in the courthouse of Schiphol, the Netherlands, on November 23, 2016, during the last day of his hate speech trial

The Hague (AFP) - Populist Dutch MP Geert Wilders remained unapologetic as his hate speech trial drew to a close on Wednesday, saying "millions of Dutch citizens will be convicted with me" if he is found guilty.

Wilders, 53, who had previously shunned hearings held at a high-security courthouse near Amsterdam's Schiphol airport, addressed a three-judge bench at the end of the three-week trial which will formally be closed on Friday.

"I am not a racist and my voters are neither. They are people who want their country back and who are sick and tired of not being listened to," said Wilders, dressed in a dark blue suit and with his trademark peroxide hairdo.

"If you convict me, you will convict half of The Netherlands," said Wilders, who added: "Many Dutch will then lose the last bit of trust in the rule of law."

The firebrand far-right politician faces charges of insulting a racial group and inciting racial hatred after comments he made about Moroccans living in the Netherlands.

Set for a verdict on December 9, the trial focuses in part on a comment made at a March 2014 local government election rally, when Wilders asked supporters whether they wanted "fewer or more Moroccans in your city and in the Netherlands".

When the crowd shouted back "Fewer! Fewer!" a smiling Wilders answered: "We're going to organise that."

The Netherlands will hold general elections in March and Wilders's far-right Freedom Party (PVV) is riding high in various polls, a close second or even ahead of the ruling Liberal VVD party.

His 2014 statements were met with outrage, including from the small but vocal Dutch Muslim community. An avalanche of 6,400 complaints to police followed.

But Wilders accused prosecutors -- whom he referred to as government "puppets" -- and opposition politicians of directing a "political process" against him.

"The court is being abused to settle a political score," Wilders told the judges.

Earlier, public prosecutor Wouter Bos said Wilders could "say what he wants" but that "the law is clear and applies to everyone -- to Wilders too".

Goran Sluiter, a lawyer representing aggrieved groups and individuals who are demanding compensation from Wilders, told the judges "that only the law can protect minorities" in The Netherlands.

Whereas Wilders says the principle of freedom of expression was on trial, Sluiter told the judges that it was a "criminal process against an evil that's called discrimination".

Prosecutors last week demanded a 5,000 euro ($5,300) fine against Wilders, who has promised to close mosques, ban Muslim immigrants and withdraw The Netherlands from the European Union should he be voted into power next year.

Magnificent Ronald and the Founding Fathers of al Qaeda

“These gentlemen are the moral equivalents of America’s founding fathers.” — Ronald Reagan while introducing the Mujahideen leaders to media on the White house lawns (1985). During Reagan’s 8 years in power, the CIA secretly sent billions of dollars of military aid to the mujahedeen in Afghanistan in a US-supported jihad against the Soviet Union. We repeated the insanity with ISIS against Syria.